


i want you to notice

by kellifer_fic



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-09
Updated: 2011-11-09
Packaged: 2017-10-25 21:10:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/274822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kellifer_fic/pseuds/kellifer_fic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur has a reputation and Eames has a crush.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i want you to notice

"I'm not going to sleep with you."

Arthur smirks at him. "You will."

000

The thing was, he slept with Arthur the first time they met.

The _problem_ was that while he was lying in a sated stupor thinking that he could do this quite happily for the rest of his life, Arthur was busy pulling clothes on and about to make himself scarce.

"Breakfast?" Eames had asked, watching Arthur's very attractive skin disappear below trousers and pinstripes and jumpers.

"It's three in the morning."

"There's an all night place just a block down."

Arthur had looked at him over his shoulder from his perch on the side of the hotel bed. The expression on his face had reminded Eames of the tail-end of a conversation Cobb and he had had that afternoon. What it had basically boiled down to was Cobb saying _it's not him I'm worried about_. "I don't eat breakfast at three in the morning."

Eames tried to stop himself but he'd blurted, "Late dinner?"

Arthur's expression had carefully folded down and he'd half shrugged. "I have an early flight. _You_ have an early flight so-"

"It's been fun, eh?" Eames had interjected, having wanted to scrape at least some of his dignity back.

"Very," Arthur had agreed, had slung a garment bag over his arm and had left.

000

"I warn people, over and over," Mal is saying as Eames tries valiantly not to drown in the bowl of cereal she has thrust under his nose. It's a losing battle because he's having trouble keeping his head propped up on his hand. He's not sure what they drank the night previous but he needs to find out so he can swear off it for life.

"Mal, dearest heart, mind catching me up on the beginning of this conversation?" Eames implores, voice muffled because his fist is smooshing his mouth sideways. "Be a love and use very small words."

"Arthur," Mal says and Eames finally manages to pry his head off his hand.

"That's probably too small a word, hmm?" he says but he's starting to have an idea about where this conversation is going and he doesn't want to have it when he doesn't have his faculties about him.

"Dominic was supposed to talk to you about Arthur," Mal clarifies, or at least she thinks she does but Eames is still lost.

"What in particular about Arthur?" Eames asks and Mal gives him a patient and exasperated look he's sure Cobb sees a lot.

"How if you are looking for something more than fleeting then you just shouldn't go there," Mal says, sketching something in the air with her hands that Eames can't decipher. He thinks maybe she's trying to be lewd but is missing the mark. Considering his current mental state, Eames is pretty sure that if Mal had _succeeded_ in being lewd then his head would have caved in. "I've known you a long time and despite your cavalier exterior, fleeting is something you don't do."

"I haven't seen Arthur for six months," Eames protests and it's true. He hasn't exactly been avoiding Arthur, it would be impossible to do so considering Arthur is Cobb's usual point man but he's also seemed to find himself with alternate employment whenever Mal called to ask him to come work with them. The only invitations he's accepted of Mal's have been personal ones and only when he was sure they weren't working.

It's definitely not avoidance and it's _most definitely_ not denial either.

"Yes, and you have been depressed about it for the entire time," Mal says and Eames snorts and rolls his eyes. When she just levels a gaze at him that says she isn't buying whatever he's selling, Eames shuffles his cereal bowl aside so he can drop his head onto the table.

"Shut up."

000

It's a small industry with an even smaller number of professionals who won't hang you out to dry so Eames and Arthur do end up on a job together eventually.

"I'm not going to sleep with you," Eames announces when they've shaken hands and gotten the awkward greetings and pleasantries out of the way. Eames immediately feels like an idiot because Arthur just cocks his head sideways and raises an eyebrow.

Arthur is smirking at him. "You will."

000

Apparently Arthur feels the need to sleep with their architect and the chemist first though which Eames feels is just rude. He watches from his corner where the mark's daughter's photos from every conceivable angle are tacked up as Arthur leaves with Joshua the first night and Angela the second.

Arthur tosses a look over his shoulder both times that Eames tries not to read as _I'll get to you eventually_ but it's hard because that's clearly what it's saying.

Eames gets completely shit faced in retaliation the second night, drunk dials Arthur, goes to sleep in an alley and wakes up in his own bed with sounds coming from the kitchen. Eames, extremely hungover and wearing nothing but last night's boxers approaches the kitchen with a gun held loosely by his side. He almost shoots himself in the foot when he sees Arthur in his kitchen wearing an apron Eames didn't even know he owned, cooking something that smells both delicious and nauseating given his current delicate condition.

Arthur seems to sense his presence because without turning he points a spatula in the direction of a mug set on the counter. "I made coffee, or do you drink tea?"

"Coffee's fine," Eames says, trying to tuck his gun into the back of his boxers and nearly losing them because the gun is far too heavy for any such activity. Arthur holds his non-spatula hand out behind him and Eames passes him the gun, grip first and then approaches the coffee, hands held out in front of him like he has to feel his way towards it. He manages to down half of it before he realises Arthur has been talking. "Say again?"

"I said, we did this a little backwards," Arthur says, turns and slides what turns out to be eggs with something green through them onto two waiting plates. "We should've done breakfast last time."

"Last time?"

"Last time we slept together," Arthur says and Eames blinks at him.

"We slept together?" he practically squeaks because he certainly doesn't remember that.

Arthur gets an almost hilariously pinched look on his face. "Yes..." he says slowly. "Almost a year ago. I didn't realise it was so forgettable."

"A year... not last night?" Eames says, scratching at the back of his head and feeling oddly disappointed.

Arthur snorts a laugh. "I found you sleeping in a dumpster," Arthur says. "You gave me the address of where you were but not the _specific_ location. I had to ring your phone and follow the sound until I found you."

"So?"

"You were unconscious. Not exactly up to any kind of carnal activities."

000

"I haven't slept with anyone else since then," Arthur says. They'd spent the day together and are now watching a Die Hard marathon while downing the leftover pizza that was in Eames' fridge. They could have called out for fresh but Eames discovered he and Arthur had an unhealthy but mutual love for day-old fridge pizza.

"What about Joshua and Angela?" Eames asks with a raised eyebrow. "You _left_ with them."

"I walked Joshua to the station the first night because he was sure he'd been followed on the way and I took Angela to see the new Johnny Depp film because she told me no one else would go with her."

"Johnny Depp?"

"I just zoned out and watched him be pretty for two hours."

"Wise move," Eames grunts but then sits up from his slump. "I don't do casual. Never got the knack."

"I've heard that."

"And I've heard you don't do anything but."

"I never met anyone worthwhile enough," Arthur says and even though his gaze is on the screen, his mouth tilts up at the side and he gestures in a way that encompasses Eames' entire being.

"I'm not going to sleep with you," Eames says and when that gets Arthur's attention, he smirks.

"You will."

"Yeah, you're probably bloody right."


End file.
